Roosevelt professor: Student killed in stabbing was "brilliant"

A Roosevelt University student stabbed to death over the weekend was described by one of his professors as a bright and promising student who made "sharp" observations.

Rodney Kyles, 19, died after a fight in Lincoln Park on Saturday.

"He was a brilliant student," said Svetozar Minkov, associate professor of philosophy at Roosevelt University. "Very subtle and very thoughtful. Marvelous thinker."

Minkov taught an ethics class in which Kyles was enrolled. Kyles was a second-year student studying philosophy, the school said in a release today.

Friend and classmate Latricia Wilson also remembered him as a talented rap artist whose style of "spoken word" was in the same vein as Kanye West. She said he put out an album where he performed and wrote all of the songs.

"He was very smart, very friendly and very talented," said Wilson.

Kyles was stabbed in the chest and abdomen during a fight in the 1100 block of West Wrightwood Avenue in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. He was pronounced dead at 1:23 a.m. Saturday at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

A second man, 18, was stabbed in the buttocks during the fight, police said.

No one was in custody, according to Chicago Police News Affairs Officer Veejay Zala.